Time spent

I have been oh, so busy this last week, running around doing all the usual stuff, grandparenting, washing huge loads of sheets and towels, cleaning house ( we have had several families staying at our holiday home) and it is always a mammoth task to get it ready for the next lot of guests.

However, I was very happy to have a couple of days catching up on the things I love to do the most.
I hand dyed some corriedale fleece, spun and then plied it the navojo way.

I made some small progress on Phoebe's quilt this week and I have made a start on this quilt. Very satisfying !

Some weeding was done amongst the flowers, not very energetically, but there are a few "weed free" gaps now.

I hope you have a great weekend, doing all the things you love the most.

Handspun Goodness

A very quick post today just to show some handspun yarn that is hot off the spinning wheel.

It is a blend of 50/50 merino/soy fibres and is extremely soft.

The colour is the inside of a warm rosy pink peach just plucked off the tree and it will knit up on the needles like a soft pound of butter.

A small leafy shadow

Noting the date today, I see I have been away from my blog for a week and I don't have any particular reason that I can think of, except that I have been feeling a little grumpy.

An "eeyore" sort of grumpy.

Not the irritable sort of grumpy, not a flurry of worries or anything like that, nor a disquieting conversation with someone that has left you feeling a little put out and misunderstood......no, definitely not that.....but the little feelings of unease and not being able to settle on any one thing satisfactorily.

You know what I mean, don't you...the sort of feeling you get when you find a box of roses chocolates in the cupboard, that you had completely forgotten about, left over from Mother's Day and placed at the back of some tins of savory tomatoes that you had overstocked on because they were "on special". You bring the box down from the cupboard and discover that someone else had made the discovery before you, and had consumed the lot and left the empty box behind without even a " ha,ha got you" note inside.

Then there is the $50.00 note that you thought you had hidden away in your purse, hidden behind the post office receipts for parcels sent, and ones that you have to keep just in case the parcel doesn't reach the receiver. You discover something special ( like a book that you have heard a good review of on the radio), delve in your purse for that $50.00 note and find that you must have already spent it, and the worst thing is that you can't remember doing it !

It's the same feeling you have when you buy tickets in advance for a concert or show, and make a note of the date in your calendar, then find out you missed it when you read the review in the local paper.

None of those things have happened to me in this last week, although I have experienced them all at other times, no it is just a vague feeling of unease.... hmmm,

I must be feeling unsettled because I haven't done any knitting or spent time in my workshop for a while, but here are some pics taken in the garden which is where I been spending rather a lot of time lately.

Spring Garden

I starting piecing this quilt exactly a year ago, when my garden was looking much the same as it is now.

I quilted it a few days ago and wondered why I had waited so long to finish it.

I think this could quite possibly turn into a favourite, for now anyway.

Stones and Flowers

I love dressing the stones I find with their own little crochet covering, and then placing them in the garden amongst the flowers.

You can read about their beginnings here.

I choose my stone carefully, then take a cup of chai tea to sip, and sit outside to play hooky for a while.

The garden looks it's best in the Spring and I am finding a sweet surprise every day.

Another Birthday Quilt

Yesterday was my eldest son Tristan's birthday. He and Sylvia, and their little girl Eve live and work on a dairy farm, and their home is a rather tired 70's house, with a 80's colour scheme. Their bedroom is dominated by the colour brown, and I chose this range of Denise Schmidt 's fabrics...Flea Market Fancy, because I knew that it would be perfect to jazz up their room a little, and I am hoping it will.

It has been rather a long time in the making, mainly because of the size... and oh boy, it was a bit of a headache quilting this on my little sewing machine...how I wished for a "long arm machine".

Never mind, it is all finished now, I just have to attach the label and hand it over !

For a newborn

The above little vest is the subtle colour of Pearl Lavender ( which funnily enough is also the name of a resene paint that I rather like ).

It looks white in the picture, but I can assure you i'ts definitely not.

You might remember that a couple of months ago I was experimenting with some flower and plant dyeing, using my book Eco Colour by India Flint as a guide and I produced this very subtle colour with these purple pansies.

After picking the fresh flowers I popped them into a little plastic bag and put them into the freezer. Once frozen I put them into a small muslin bag and poured a little warm water over them to defrost them and squeezing gently to release the colour. I didn't add a mordant, but I am happy with the result, and I think I will wrap this wee vest in some tissue and put it aside for the new baby coming in February.

It's about time there was a newborn in the family again !